You may have heard the story that a young man named Abner Doubleday invented a game called baseball in Cooperstown, New York, in the summer of 1839. Doubleday later became a Civil War hero, and baseball became America’s most popular national sport.

This story is not only false, it is completely false. The true origins of baseball go back much further, to at least the 18th century.

Who Was Abner Doubleday?

Born in 1819 to a prominent family in upstate New York, Doubleday was still at West Point in 1839 but never claimed to have anything to do with baseball. Instead, he served as a Union major general in the Civil War and later became a lawyer and author.

In 1907, 16 years after Doubleday’s death, a special committee headed by sporting goods magnate and former major leaguer A.J. Spalding was used to determine the origins of baseball – whether it was invented in the United States or derived from the British game. The committee used flimsy evidence (the claims of mining engineer Abner Graves that he had gone to school with Doubleday) to piece together a widespread origin story Bos5000.

Cooperstown businessmen and major league officials capitalized on the power of the enduring myth by establishing the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in the village in the 1930s.

What Are Baseball’s Real Origins?

As it turns out, baseball’s real history is a bit more complicated than the Doubleday legend. References to a baseball-like game in the United States date back to the 18th century. Its most direct ancestors seem to be two British games: rounders (a children’s game brought to New England by the first settlers) and cricket.

By the time of the American Revolutionary War, variations on these games were being played in schoolyards and college campuses across the country. In the mid-19th century, it became even more popular in the newly industrialized cities where men were looking for work.

In September 1845, a group of New York men formed the New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club. One of them, a volunteer firefighter and bank teller named Alexander Joy Cartwright, was tasked with codifying the new rules that would become the foundation of modern baseball, featuring a diamond-shaped infield, foul lines, and a three-strike rule. He also eliminated the dangerous practice of throwing the ball to a runner to make contact.

Cartwright’s changes made the burgeoning pastime faster and more challenging, but clearly distinguished it from older games like cricket. In 1846, the Knickerbockers played the first official baseball game against a team of cricketers, establishing a new tradition across America.